WATCH: Heart-wrenching new doc shows just how far Boys Scouts Of America went to cover up sex abuse

In the past decade, Boys Scouts Of America has taken great strides to become more inclusive, officially welcoming gay youth into their programs in 2014, male-identifying trans youth in 2017, and even allowing girls to take part in the Cub Scouts in 2018.

But, despite the progress, it can be difficult to overlook the years of exclusion, pain, trauma, and other controversies that have effectively been a part of the organization since its founding in 1910.

In fact, in 2020, the BSA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of its efforts to settle thousands of child sex abuse claims, many of which had quite literally been filed away by officials in an effort to protect the integrity of the organization.

The new Netflix documentary, Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America, delves into the decades-long cover-up efforts, speaking with whistleblowers, survivors, and other experts about the complicated web of lies and abuse, and the heartbreaking toll its taken on thousands of young lives.

Actually, that’s 82,209 lives, to be exact—that we know of. That’s how many had come forward to make claims against the BSA at the time of the doc’s production.

And while some will say this is the work of some “bad apples” within the BSAs ranks, Scouts Honor sets out to expose the deep-seeded systemic issues that allowed this to happen, starting with the fact that the supposed “rigorous application and screening process” to vet scout leaders was more or less nonexistent.

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The film comes on the heels of another last year, the similarly titled Boy Scout’s Honor, which unpacked the organization’s cover-up efforts by way of one individual’s harrowing story of abuse. But the Netflix doc will attempt to take a much broader look at the issue, with first-hand accounts from multiple survivors.

No matter how painful it may be to revisit such a dark time in their childhoods, the brave survivors are speaking out and sharing their stories with one goal in mind: To ensure no child ever has to go through what they did.

From director Brian Knappenberger (who’s worked on a number of docs for Netflix, including the harrowing The Trials Of Gabriel Fernandez), Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America heads to Netflix on September 6.

Watch the film’s trailer below: